Sighting in a carry gun

[OWGEM]

Purchased a new handgun today. Not going to say what brand so there will be no brand wars (hopefully). As a subcompact it will be a carry gun, not so much a range gun. Not to say I will not take it to the range as I did the day it was purchased. Put 50 rounds of SD ammo and about 35 of FMJ through and am happy with the gun.

This handgun has adjustable rear sights. I benched rested and sighted in at 7 yards, nice tight group. Unfortunately I was rushed for time and so instead of bench resting longer distance I shot standing at 15 yards. The grouping was comparable to my usual at that range.
My questions are: what distance does one sight in a carry gun? Is there a recommended distance? Will it really matter?

 

[VERT]

If it shoots to point of aim at 7 to 15 yards you are good to go.

 

[wwdkd]

I have my current carry gun's sites sighted at 25 yds and my crimson trace at 10. I figure the 10yd CT is good for most defensive situations and if I need to make a longer range shot for some reason I'd just use iron sights instead of the laser.

 

[MrSmitty]

Purchased a new handgun today. Not going to say what brand so there will be no brand wars (hopefully). As a subcompact it will be a carry gun, not so much a range gun. Not to say I will not take it to the range as I did the day it was purchased. Put 50 rounds of SD ammo and about 35 of FMJ through and am happy with the gun.

This handgun has adjustable rear sights. I benched rested and sighted in at 7 yards, nice tight group. Unfortunately I was rushed for time and so instead of bench resting longer distance I shot standing at 15 yards. The grouping was comparable to my usual at that range.
My questions are: what distance does one sight in a carry gun? Is there a recommended distance? Will it really matter?

Sounds like you're doing your part, and the gun is doing it's job!! good luck and good shooting!

 

[dice dealer]

Most situations that would require you to pull and use your firearm will happen with 7 yards or less , and you probably wont have much time to take aim.

You would be much better off practicing off handed shooting or point and shoot type situations.

Your doing right the way you are ,I always sight in any and all weapons , and find out what its maximum capabilities are.

But in most self defense type situations your not going to have time to aim or take into account the distance , and lets face it you wont need to know this in a self defense situation when the BG is in your face ...


Practice the way you are ..but also pratice for a real life situation .

 

[thompal]

I've gotta agree with everyone here, for what it's worth. If it's shooting roughly to point of aim at 7 yards, it will probably be just fine. If you end up having to slug it out at much longer distances, you have brought the wrong gun to the event.

 

[RichardR]

I generally have to shoot at least 300 rounds without a single hiccup of the ammunition I intend to use in it, before I start to trust a weapon enough for self/home defense work.

And I always start at a 7 yard station for the majority of my function & accuracy testing & then I usually move to a 25 yard station so I can get a good idea of how well it shoots at the extreme end of what I consider reasonable SD/HD ranges.

 

[GLV]

25 yards

In addition, do some shooting at up to 100 yards so you know if you can.

 

[rmabrey]

IMO having sights adjusted at anything less than 15-20 yds is a waste of time you can point shoot distances less than that, especially 7 yds

 

[JoshuaW]

Most situations that would require you to pull and use your firearm will happen with 7 yards or less , and you probably wont have much time to take aim.

You would be much better off practicing off handed shooting or point and shoot type situations.

Your doing right the way you are ,I always sight in any and all weapons , and find out what its maximum capabilities are.

But in most self defense type situations your not going to have time to aim or take into account the distance , and lets face it you wont need to know this in a self defense situation when the BG is in your face ...


Practice the way you are ..but also pratice for a real life situation .

I agree. I would sight it in at 10 yards, and then use a wide range of practice. Do some "target practice" at varying distance, and do some realistic practice.

I normally try to do a few exercises like this one every time I am at the range:

Do something for a minute or two to occupy your time. I usually play a game on my phone, or read INGO. I chose a "trigger word" or event in whatever I am doing that I wont be able to predict. For instance, if I am reading INGO, I will just do so as usual and the second I see the word "Glock" I will literally drop my phone, draw, and shoot till I have nothing left to shoot. I like this exercise because it is a bit more than simply drawing and shooting, since I cant simply prepare myself for when I am going to draw/shoot.

I will occasionally mix in a jog or run in place for a little bit to get my heart rate up. I normally do these at 7-10 yards.

 

[indykid]

25 yards

In addition, do some shooting at up to 100 yards so you know if you can.

I want to say I am sorry right from the start, but if you practice with a pistol up to 100 yards, you have been watching too many movies. At anything over 25 yards you better be using your pistol to fight your way to your rifle.

As said earlier, most true confrontations don't give you time to aim. Point and shoot. Most confrontations are at distances less than 15 yards.

And as also said, run a lot of ammo through your self protection firearm to both get familiar with it and to make sure it is 100% reliable.

OWGEM, you have proven the pistol works with your SD ammo, now just verify it is fully broken in using your other ammo.

 

[rmabrey]

OWGEM, you have proven the pistol works with your SD ammo, now just verify it is fully broken in using your other ammo.

AGREED!!! @ over $430 for me to shoot 300 rounds of my carry ammo one mag to check for cycling is sufficient for me

 

[SemperFiUSMC]

Purchased a new handgun today. Not going to say what brand so there will be no brand wars (hopefully). As a subcompact it will be a carry gun, not so much a range gun. Not to say I will not take it to the range as I did the day it was purchased. Put 50 rounds of SD ammo and about 35 of FMJ through and am happy with the gun.

This handgun has adjustable rear sights. I benched rested and sighted in at 7 yards, nice tight group. Unfortunately I was rushed for time and so instead of bench resting longer distance I shot standing at 15 yards. The grouping was comparable to my usual at that range.
My questions are: what distance does one sight in a carry gun? Is there a recommended distance? Will it really matter?

Sub-compact carry gun should be used in a gunfight measured in feet. If the gunfight is measured in yards use your carry gun to escape and get to your long gun.

 

[RichardR]

Sub-compact carry gun should be used in a gunfight measured in feet. If the gunfight is measured in yards use your carry gun to escape and get to your long gun.

Agreed a long gun would be a much better choice if any sort of distances are involved, but that's not always an option though.

The problem with "emergency situations" is that the circumstances we might find ourselves in are never set in stone & could possibly mandate immediately engaging a target with a carry gun at longer distances than just a few feet.

It's not all that unlikely of a scenario either, for instance say from across a two lane street, in a parking lot, from one end of a house to another, etc, could easily put the shooter about 25 yards away from their target.

 

[Prometheus]

AGREED!!! @ over $430 for me to shoot 300 rounds of my carry ammo one mag to check for cycling is sufficient for me

I use the remington 100 round bulk pack HP's found at WW. Usually not to much more than FMJ's.

Also, I'll mix up HP in with my lead reloads occasionally at varied positions in the mags while working thru it.

I also don't change carry guns frequently. I have many pistols, but I'll carry the same XD for years. Something to be said for familiarity.

As to sighting in, I don't (and wouldn't) use adjustable sights on any of my carry guns. Fixed Meprolights or trijicons all the way. XD, XDM, 1911 even the factory sights on the G17 all will shoot 1" groupings at point of aim dead on at 7 yards. Unless you are going for shooting a 1/2" square at 7 yards... why the need for adjustable sights? Doesn't make sense, I want rock solid, locktighted into place sights that i can use in lowlight. If you carry every day and 224/7/365 it's going to get bumped an dbanged around. Adjustable sights seems counter productive to a defensive handgun.

As to "using the sights"... Aimed shots are far prefered to point shooting. With some training you can draw from concealment, use your sights and land your first hit in 1 second flat at a target 7 yards away, for those who put in an hour or two of dry practice a week, you can drop that even more. Point shooting is not much faster, assumes a clean background free of innocents and requires a much higher level of skill and time investment.

Take the extra 1 to 2 tenths of a second and use that front sight at 7 yards and guarantee not just hits but COM hits. You can also take head shots in nearly the same amount of time as well.